A short-wave radio receiver is worth
bringing with you for world events and breaking
news. The national TV outfit, Chinese Central
Television (CCTV), has two English channels -
CCTV4 and CCTV9. Major cities may have a second
local channel, like Beijing Television (BTV).
Sports news can be picked up on CCTV5 (in Chinese);
your hotel may have ESPN. Many hotels have their
own film channels.

Hong Kong's STAR TV broadcasts via
satellite to China and CNN is also available in
certain areas.

Video Systems

China subscribes to the PAL broadcasting
standard, the same as Australia, New Zealand,
the UK and most of Europe. Competing systems not
used in China include SECAM (France, Germany,
Luxembourg) and NTSC (Canada, Japan and the USA).
VCD and DVD have rapidly become the standard.